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My True Love: Tacos Al Pastor

by Rick Bayless

on 08/27/07 at 09:41 AM

I love tacos al pastor. There, I've said it. I try tacos al pastor almost everywhere I go in Mexico. I am not sure what it is--the pineapple, the combination of the onion, not sure--but I get loads of folks asking me for a way to make them at home. I don't have a recipe, but I can tell you what I know. Tacos al pastor, made the traditional way on a spit (like gyros), typically involves a layering of thin-sliced pork leg with red chile marinade (and, occasionally, sliced onion) topped with a whole, peeled pineapple. That layering set up is really hard to achieve at home, so I have never written a recipe for it. Instead, I recommend that people buy thin-cut pork steak (cut from the shoulder of the animal), pound it with a meat tenderizing mallet, then marinate it in red chile adobo (I like to combine ancho and guajillo chiles with garlic, vinegar, oregano, black pepper, cinnamon and cloves). When I'm in a hurry, I simply puree a can of chipotles in the food processor, thin out the mixture with water, then brush it on the pork (you have to like spicy food). I grill the meat, along with red onions and slices of pineapple, chop everything up and serve it with a chipotle-roasted tomatillo salsa. Or, I go out for really good tacos al pastor--like the ones I had at Rubi's at Maxwell Street Market (in Chicago) a couple of weeks ago.

Last week at this time I was eating the dish at Tacos al Pastor ground zero: La Rana taqueria in Puebla, MX. Two large spits of meat grilling and they couldn't cut it fast enough. Although I rarely eat meat I was hooked. Last night I made Rick's recipe with some modifications from the Epicurious recipe on the grill at home. Fabulous!

I have had real tacos al pastor in Mexico City. I have to say as well, they are my favorite. I have looked for a long time for a recipe to try to reproduce it at home. The thing is, the Al Pastor marinade recipe is a guarded secret by the Taquerias so it's almost impossible to get it exactly right. My favorites were at Taco Inn, but I know there are many more great ones in Ciudad de Mexico. My mouth waters even thinking about them. I have had a few close replicas in California, but really... they aren't quite the same as the Mexico City originals.

adobo1 12:36:06 PM on 02/20/08

Dear Rick

The cooking method is the most important to prepare the real tacos al pastor. With ADOBO OVEN.A revolutionary oven that allows its user to cook the meat of the “pastor tacos” while displaying the process inside any restaurant. This allows the restaurant patrons to experience the feeling of eating in a real Mexican “taquería”.

We realized that Mexican restaurants in the US lack the original “trompo de pastor” (traditional display pastor ovens), and we quickly learned that the reason for this is because traditional pastor ovens do not conform to the regulations imposed by the Health Department. A closer look at the issue revealed that with a conventional pastor oven, the rack of meat is slowly cooked from the outside, leaving a percentage of the meat in the inside at risk for bacteria reproduction.

ADOBO OVEN prevents this vulnerability by cooking the meat in a revolutionary way. Along with the burners on the outside, it also has an inside heating mechanism that cooks the meat from its core, thus allowing the whole rack of meat to reach the adequate temperature. ADOBO OVEN meets all of the requirements of the US Health Department and its revolutionary technology assures that the meat will always be safe and healthy.

Clients will enjoy the show of watching the “taquero” prepare tacos by cutting thin slices from the rack of pastor meat and placing them in a small corn tortilla along with onion, cilantro and the traditional small chunk of pineapple. I can give you the recipe for the tacos al pastor. For more information visit us at www.adobooven.com

Best regards,

Juan Antonio Rodriguez Adobo Oven.

isafranka 11:15:37 AM on 10/12/07

There is a very complete guide to making tacos al pastor at home at www.alpastororiginal.com

piercivale 01:59:59 PM on 09/22/07

My greatest culinary quest is to be able to make great Tacos Al Pastor. I live in the SF Bay Area where there are some decent ones to be found, but I'm surprised that there seems to be no attempt to prepare them on a rotisserie; not fully authentic but it should be workable.

My experience has been that the ones with the spit have a superior texture and grilled flavor but the best flavor seems to come from some of the hole in the wall places (La Costa, Brentwood, CA being my favorite) that are just frying them - they seem to have the better spice blend which overcomes their cooking restriction enough to result in a more sublime bite of ecstasy.

I'll try Rick's today, and see if I can get close to that elusive combo of sweet, spicy heaven that I know is out there somewhere. Anyone have any input?

Thanks Rick!!!

fooferan 08:42:50 PM on 08/29/07

Thank you, Rick, thank you! I fell in love with Tacos al Pastor when I lived in Guadalajara, and I truly suffer here in Washington DC where all the Mexican restaurants are run by Salvadorans (a cuisine with its own charms, but not the same as Tapatio). I'm gonna have to try your jury-rigged version.

DavidHammond 06:05:28 PM on 08/29/07

worldmatt,

My experience is that many places in Chicago simply griddle the tacos al pastor, which I find much less satisfying to eat -- and much less fun to watch.

Here's a list of some places in Chicago where they cut it off the spit:

Tacos El Jaliciense 2859 W Chicago 773.235.2859

Taqueria La Poblanita 4171 S Archer Av 773.523.8800

Taqueria el Pastor 4418 West 63rd 773.284.1003

Mario's Taco's 4540 W 63rd St 773.582.8226

Tortilleria Atotonilco 5656 S Kedzie 773.436.4890

Birriria Huentitlan 4019 W North 773.276.0768

I do not believe Rubi's has a spit, but I defer to Chef Bayless on that point.

seasuds 08:58:13 AM on 08/28/07

I have made this once before with a homemade rig. I partially froze, then sliced a boneless pork loin an marinated the pork in adobo and other spices mentioned above. Using a Weber 22 1/2 kettle, I stacked charcoal in the Weber coal keepers for indirect cooking atop the bottom grate. I fashioned a overgrown thingamajig that you would stick used desk notes onto (a circular bottom that evolved straight up to a single pointy shaft) out of a clean wire coat hanger. I stacked the pork and pineapple onto the shaft, placed the whole thing in a cake pan between the coals and cooked covered to an internal temp of 160F and golden brown. It was quite tasty!

worldmatt 11:47:41 AM on 08/27/07

Rick, does Rubi's do their tacos al pastor gyro-style? I've never managed to find it that way anywhere in the States (not that I've looked all that hard), and whenever I ask taco vendors why they don't gyro it, they usually cite Health Department regulations (or shrug their shoulders). But man, when you slice meat from a spinning stack, it just tastes so much better -- especially with that pineapple and a tiny nugget of cheese.